Major opposition politician Peter Obi has admitted that he and his compatriots elected “thieves” to manage national resources.

“The only thing wrong with Nigeria is that we hire thieves to manage our resources, people who have not created wealth,” Mr Obi said at his official declaration for the ADC presidential ticket before his supporters in Akwa Ibom on Saturday. “You cannot hire a thief to look after your wealth; he will definitely steal it.”

Earlier this month, the politician noted that Nigeria “is not a poor country”, but rather “it is poorly governed”.

“Remember us in your prayers that God should touch our hearts to use public money for public good,” Mr Obi told Nigerians. “Please do remember we politicians in your prayers. We are the problem of Nigeria. No other person.”

Following his plea, the former Labour Party presidential standard-bearer excoriated President Bola Tinubu for his poor budget implementation.

“President Tinubu inherited a legally signed N21.83 trillion budget for 2023. A few months after taking office, he presented a N2.17 trillion supplementary budget that faced widespread criticism for prioritising benefits for public officeholders at a time when Nigerians were enduring painful economic reforms without a credible social protection framework.

“Instead of restoring fiscal discipline, the president repeatedly expanded the 2023 budget without a clearly defined end date,” Mr Obi explained.

The ADC chieftain added, “This lack of transparency is not accidental; it reflects a deliberate pattern of undermining public scrutiny and debate. The federal government has stopped publishing treasury reports on the opentreasury.gov.ng portal, dismantling a vital transparency framework inherited from the previous administration. In 2025, no budget implementation report was released, regardless of how poor the performance was! No nation can operate with such recklessness and succeed.”

On Saturday, addressing a crowd in Akwa Ibom, Mr Obi warned that “in the upcoming election in 2027, anybody who refuses to count our vote, we will count the person join”.

“Anybody who refused to count our votes in 2027, we will ‘count’ him,” said Mr Obi.